Al Dawson
PRIEST by Al Dawson
Faith McGuire is a lawyer who represents survivors of clerical abuse in the archdiocese of Baltimore. When a well-regarded pastor is accused of sexual misconduct after his funeral, his private diaries give her reason to doubt the claims. What begins as a professional investigation becomes something she was not prepared for: a trail of concealed crimes, institutional deception, and a web of corruption that will test everything she believes about the church she has defended and the justice she has served.
Priest was written by a former Franciscan priest candidate who understands, from the inside, what it means to believe in an institution and discover what it is capable of.
Winner of Gold, First Place for Adult Fiction, 2025 Feathered Quill Book Awards. Published by Luna del Lobo Books, 2024.
BENEATH THE COLLAR LIES THE TRUTH
- Faith McGuire believes the priest’s diary has revealed it all until a cryptic entry surfaces, hinting at something far darker.
- The clue leads her to an unexpected discovery where chilling new crimes will be revealed
- Every revelation drags her deeper into a world of deception, where saints and sinners cannot be easily distinguished.
- Powerful figures will stop at nothing to keep the past buried and Faith’s pursuit of justice may prove costly
- Torn between her duty and her faith, she must decide how much truth she’s willing to endure
292
Pages
Kindle
Edition
2805
Sales
our author
Al Dawson is a retired regulatory lawyer who spent his career inside the institutions his fiction examines: the Church, the courtroom, the regulatory apparatus. He understands how they work. And how they fail the people who trusted them.
His novels are built from that knowledge. Searching for Noriko (2021) earned second place at the Palm Beach Book Festival. Priest (2024) won Gold, First Place for Adult Fiction at the 2025 Feathered Quill Book Awards. Borderlines (2026) continues the moral universe he has been building since his first novel.
He lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida with his wife Jane. He publishes under Luna del Lobo Books.
Priest is the second novel in Al Dawson’s catalog. Begin with Searching for Noriko, or continue with Borderlines.
ODYSSEY
A descent into the architecture of institutional faith, where every answer leads to a more dangerous question and every answer costs Faith something she cannot get back.
EXPLORATION
Through sealed court records, private diaries, and the corridors of an institution that has survived for centuries by keeping its secrets, Faith follows a trail no one wanted her to find.
THE CRAFT
A legal and moral thriller built on the author's firsthand knowledge of the priesthood and the law, awarded Gold by the Feathered Quill Book Awards for Adult Fiction 2025.
Dawson has taken a dark subject and skillfully woven it into an intricate, multifaceted, gritty thriller. Is anyone innocent? It keeps you riveted. Alan Fine, Former President, Marvel Entertainment
“There is no friend as loyal as a book.” Ernest Hemingway